Banded hare-wallaby

Lagostrophus fasciatus

Blamed on foxes

IUCN status: Vulnerable

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: ****

IUCN claim: “The species presumably was extirpated from mainland Australia by a combination of predation by the Red Fox and feral cat and habitat disturbance.”

Studies in support

No studies

Studies not in support

Hare-wallabies were last confirmed on the mainland in Western Australia 17-20 years before foxes arrived (Current submission).

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies linking foxes to banded hare-wallabies. In contradiction with the claim, the exirpation records pre-date the fox arrival records.

Evidence linking Lagostrophus fasciatus to foxes. A. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Lagostrophus fasciatus and foxes. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that foxes contribute to the decline of Lagostrophus fasciatus, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance. B. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of foxes. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Fairfax 2019. See methods section in [current submission] for details on evidence categories.

References

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.

EPBC. (2013) Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by the European Red Fox (2008). Five yearly review. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Government of Australia (Appendix E: EPBC Act listed threatened species).

Fairfax, Dispersal of the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) across Australia. Biol. Invasions 21, 1259-1268 (2019).

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023